Berkeley, Irvine

Grants Support Programs to Prep Math and Science Teachers

UC Berkeley and UC Irvine have won two of 12 grants from the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI), following a competition that included submissions from more than 50 universities nationwide. The NMSIgrants will give Berkeley and Irvine each $2.4 million to complement the campuses' programs that are part of UC's California Teach initiative to attract and prepare more highly skilled math and science teachers.

Called CalTeach on the Berkeley campus and the Teach Sciences and Math Initiative at UC Irvine, the program grew from a partnership between the state's universities, K–12 schools, and government and industry leaders. Its goal is to put 1,000 new science and math teachers annually into state classrooms by the year 2010. All nine UC undergraduate campuses have CalTeach programs.

For more about the program, visit California Teach program.

Two Research Discoveries Among 2007's Breakthroughs

The hyperlens developed by a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist and a new interpretation of the contorted poses of dinosaur fossils were honored as two of 2007's top 100 science stories in Discover magazine's January issue.

The hyperlens allows scientists to "peek at the molecular machinery of living cells." It was the result of research by Xiang Zhang, professor of mechanical engineering and faculty scientist at the Materials Science Division of the Lawrence Berkeley Lab, and his team.

The peculiar poses of dinosaur fossils were likely the effects of brain damage and asphyxiation, not the result of rigor mortis or disturbance after death, concluded Kevin Padian, professor of integrative biology and curator in the campus's Museum of Paleontology, and colleague Cynthia Marshall Faux of Montana's Museum of the Rockies.

According to Discover, the top 100 stories were chosen because "they focus on breakthroughs that change the way we view the world."